Good general overview of the Syrian national curriculum, of course there is more detail but this brief report is accurate.
From what the people I've spoken with have heard, some returnees managed to find relatives to stay with and are settling in, while others have simply disappeared into Syrian prisons or are being terrorized by the shabiha
Same old, same old. Unfortunately with time we all start to realize this government is truly incapable of change. I highly suggest anyone that has left the country, don't go back.. I was personally shocked a few months back when I heard that forced disappearances were still a thing, something this Lebanese journalist also mentions. If you care about the physical safety of yourself and your family, wait it out and do not return until there is rule of law and more transparency in terms of people's fates and wellbeing.
After Idlib they can go all the way to Afrin and Azaz and finish FSA once it for all.
Afrin and Azaz? Wishful thinking much?
Yeah, I don’t really distinguish though. They’re all basically just mini Saudi Arabias anyway(except Oman).
Why are they all mini Saudi Arabias? and why except Oman?
Corrupt, conservative Sunni Arab monarchies with a shit ton of oil. They are similar culturally and politically. Oman is different because it is Ibadi which makes it diverge a bit.
Very simplistic, lazy way of looking at things to be honest. There are many cultural and political differences between Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Saudi, & Bahrain. For example, Iraq as is closer culturally to Kuwait than Kuwait is to Saudi Arabia so if anything Kuwait is more of a mini Iraq than a mini Saudi.
Load more comments
The headline of the article is weird/misleading, because at first sight it seems like it is an opinion poll (it's worded to seem as such), but it is actually just based on the witness accounts of 2-3 people who at least one of whom disagreed that Russia was a defender of their faith. So.. 2 people? Anyway, in terms of content, Sunnis see Turkey as a defender of their faith, Shias see Iran as a defender of their faith, Hindus look to India, Jews look to Israel etc. but I'm skeptical of the truths behind this stuff because I really don't think religion really dictates these countries' foreign policy as much as they say it does / or as much as people think it does. Could be a motivating factor but it's not a deciding factor.
As for the Houthis themselves, they happily dance to Iran’s tune anyway, no better than puppets at this point.
This is just sectarian driven nonsense though, so I am not surprised it comes from a Saudi supporters mouth. Iran advised the Houthis not to take Saana years back. The Houthis ignored their advice. Goes to show the Houthis have their own agency and make their own decisions.
On the flipside, the STC which is supposedly all about Southern independence is now fighting the Houthis far beyond their idealised borders....because they being paid with plastic bags full of cash by the UAE to do so. So who are the puppets again?
This is just sectarian driven nonsense though
About a 100% of your contributions on reddit are sectarian driven, and about half are openly sectarian.
lol what?!?
what a vivid imagination you have. If you had any common sense, you could see I am anti-religious full stop. Whether that is Christianity, or Islam. I think they are all nuts. Each sect/faith has different levels of nuttery, but still nuts in the grand scheme of things.
Anti-religion doesn't mean you're not sectarian. You have a predisposition to sectarianism. I recognized your name immediately so thought I might as well call you out. I remember you were on world news before trying to tell people that Iran was more liberal than Dubai or something because it wasn't Sunni. No need for imagination, scroll through your profile to check. I just find it ironic that you would call people out on sectarianism.
I always wondered why (extreme)sunnies are so violent and also why they are so frequent in Iraq.
I know the victims are also sunni.
This article will help https://www.juancole.com/2014/06/iraqs-sunni-arabs.html
I wonder if they were actually behind the attack or if they are just 'problematic' people. Unfortunately with lack of transparency it's impossible to really know.
Israel propaganda or not, internationally or unintentionally, it had a desirable effect and a positive effect for Israel even if minor. Many Syrian refugees I've met had a changed opinion of Israel after the civil war. One family I met from Dara'a had a 12-year old son who had a severe injury from shrapnel. He would've died to lack of essential medical aid in Dara'a even though it was an easy procedure. Israelis treated him and the family are grateful.
Others didn't necessarily develop a positive opinion but instead now view the "resistance axis" as pointless because they act similarly to Israel or even worse - in their view. This view is more common than the former.
It wasn't just the medical aid that affected opposition Syrians' opinions but also watching the videos of the Israeli protests for Syria in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The videos were widely circulated on opposition social media and regular media. It was shocking to them that such an evil nation such as Israel (as frequently shown on Syrian media and in Syrian school curriculum) is capable of showing such empathy towards Syrians. If it didn't change their view, it at least made them question the general resistance narrative.
And the U.S. warned Syria against action against Daraa.
As the article itself says toward the tail end:
While Ankara is insisting it will not stand by if Damascus forces action on Idlib, its room to act could be limited. "There will definitely be some problems [in Idlib], but without Russian support, Turkey can do nothing," Bagci said.
This is a bit of a different situation due to two factors mentioned in the article:
1) Turkey has military forces in Idlib.
2) Turkey could face a challenge of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to the border, many of whom HTS members.
Turkey may be more willing to act in this situation than the US was in Daraa. Yes, their room to act is limited, and I'm just brainstorming here, but they could start their own offensive in Idlib and take half the province for themselves in order to keep the refugees there. Another Afrin basically.
Ok that deal has to be temporary until Assad can finish the rebel pockets, because that’s way to much for the PYD based on population and man power of both sides.
It's not like they're trusting the Syrian government though. This is all due to Russia's mediation, but any deal that Russia oversees is expected to be observed... and the PYD still has US backing to be able to set some of their own conditions.
The headline calls him a dictator, smdh
Edit: By him, I mean Bashar Assad.
It says son of the dictator.
TRT is Turkish state-owned I believe, if so it is good that they are showing the anti-rebel side a bit, it's also interesting to note that Kevork is a Syrian-Armenian.
showing the anti-rebel side a bit
I'm sure they could have found a less obnoxious person to do that. First he dives right into the conspiracy territory, then he calls another guest Saudi or Turk and continues to scold the other guy for interrupting when the other guest defends himself by saying he is in fact Syrian from Darayya.
I agree, he's not really an actual journalist nor a good speaker, but he's popular amongst Westerners.
Damascus: Fahed Kanjo is a Syrian journalist based in Damascus, he has a weekly radio show on Farah FM. He was arrested days ago and is now awaiting trail for criticising the ministry of tourism after the ministry issued a complaint that he insulted the state of tourism in country.
twitter.com/Dannym...[removed]
I can see how you're drawing parallels here, but I haven't come across many people in the West saying you should never criticize the government (this was never a discussion), their "hate speech vs free speech" issues deal mainly with social relations, racism, etc. and this post has not much to do with Islam but more to do with rich (probably even ba'athist, thus secular) elites in power not wanting to be criticized for what they do.
This is cool. Can a nice Turkish user please translate the content though? Google translate sucks..
So they are saying Öcalan isn't beautiful?
lol that was my first thought too
I hope this time the SDF have an active role, instead of following the advice of foreign powers who always let them down.
The SDF didn't have an active role last time not strictly because they were following the US' advice, but it was because the Syrian govt was unwilling to negotiate on many essential points, they even outright rejected any form of autonomy (Bashar Al-Jaafari called it a joke or something at the time and said they were "dreaming" if they thought it would happen). This time around the Syrian govt is seemingly more open to considering other points of view, so hopefully the SDF will be present with the Russian mediation.
Their name
When did sectarianism, a form of sect-based bigotry, hatred or discrimination, turn in to "anything that has to do with Shiism"? Accusations of sectarianism fly pretty much every single time any Shiite symbols or slogans appear anywhere.
their purpose
They were formed some time in 2013 to defend the shrines and Shiism in general from militants who openly and explicitly made it their mission to destroy the shrines and, in the words of Alloush, to "crush the skulls of the impure rafidha". Sure, you could say that their true purpose is to serve Iran, but that's not sectarian either.
their fighters
What did they do?
their ideology, their ties
To the Sayyed Al Qaid? What exactly is sectarian about that?
their location hundreds of kms away from the Iraqi border
The group has never been active in Iraq. Honestly, the ratio of Iraqis to Syrians in LZ doesn't matter to me, call of them Iraqis if you want. Crossing a border is not a sectarian act, and they have every right to do so while groups across that border are attempting to exterminate Shiism and directly and indirectly threatening the existence of Iraq.
Yeah, I see your point, but maybe we differ on what we call sectarianism then. Are they not an exclusively Shia group? From what I was able to gather, they are. They also have specific Shia beliefs such as God is on their side, he will bring them victory, this will hasten the Mahdi's return, etc. Do you not think to some degree that is sectarian? Do you not think it is sectarian to think that Daraa is simply a small battle within a large battle that they are supposed to wage against the "enemies of ahlulbayt"? So their presence in Syria is fuelled ideologically.. a sort of jihad, if you will, but against whom?
From what I also gather, they have fought in a bunch of different places in Syria. Do you think they looked up the geography and context before going to battle? For example, did they look up the names of the groups fighting in Daraa to first check if those specific groups bombed shrines or persecuted Shias?
How could someone leave their home and family in Iraq to fight hundreds of km's away unless there was a religious motivation? And what if that religious motivation is fuelled even more when you find out that the people you will be fighting against are Sunnis? What about the fact that they say they are fighting Mouwaiya and 'his army' on their fb page? If this is surely just about Iraq and the shrines, as you say, what does Mouwaiya have to do with it? I mean, there was no Iraq back then, but they see this as "part of a larger battle" possibly?
Btw, we've messaged before, apologies if you found my post rude or disrespectful, wasn't my intention.
EDIT: Also in terms of their name, typically in Syria when a Sunni brigade calls itself "the brigade of Omar Ibn Khattab," or "the brigade of Khalid Bin Walid," there is a sectarian sentiment attached to it. It's never just a coincidence. This is why I assumed it was the same for the Shia brigades.
Sorry if I got hostile and way too defensive, I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday.
Yeah, I guess we do have different definitions of sectarianism. I don't know whether they have any non-Shia members, some groups like Liwa Al Baqir do but in any case they all have an explicitly Shiite character. Generally speaking, Shiites have a much stronger identity than Sunnis. Tell an average Shiite to name a militia and he'll probably come up with some variation of the names of Ahlul Bayt or something that has to do with them. There's nothing unusual or telling about it, the names and flags and slogans are a big part of the Shiite identity.
From what Iraqis have told me, connecting the reappearance of the Mahdi, the Sufyani and so on to the war in Syria was a big thing early on but that doesn't seem to be a popular idea anymore. The Muawiya thing I never got, it's just a way to insult by making spurious parallels to someone we see as evil. Iraqi militias and probably most Shiites are convinced, rightfully or otherwise, that they are fighting takfiris who want to kill them all, and at the same time fighting an American-Israeli-Arab project. I doubt anyone is bothering to meaningfully differentiate between the rebel groups, the opposition as a whole already have their reputation and at this point the Iraqi militias are involved in a seven year long war in which everyone who fights against their side is the same enemy, that enemy being takfiri terrorists and the states that armed them. They don't go to fight Sunnis, but to fight "takfiris" and enemy conspiracies. At least that's the impression their leaders and media give, I'm sure some fighters just hate Sunnis.
This is a good explanation, thanks for that. I'm gonna leave my comments up so that people are able to read the explanation lol. Sorry again for my ignorance. I really thought sectarian sentiment was wholy embedded in these groups but I guess I didn't think of it this way.
Load more comments
Perhaps not. But they would have wiped the floor with rebels if it werent for US/Turkey/Saudi sinking dozens of billions in the jihad.
The Syrian government was also on life support from Iran, being helped economically and militarily. They still had Russian support pre-2015 as well even if not militarily. So if we're going to add in US/Turkey/Saudi into the equation, better to also add in Iran/Russia to get a better perspective.
doesnt change anything...
It changes the balance of power. Instead of Syria vs Turkey, Saudi, & USA as implied by the post. It is Syria, Iran, & Russia vs Turkey, Saudi, and USA.
Load more comments
-Syrian Army will not enter their towns and government institutions will be regulated by rebel delegates. -All foreigners and jihadists must leave for northern Syria. -Russians and Jordanians will work with rebels in southwest Syria to facilitate the return of refugees
twitter.com/leithf...But probably not all rebels reconciled like HTS, and Isis is also still there
I think by Jihadists he means HTS. So all HTS elements will be moved to Idlib, while the FSA will remain in the area to administer the town under the name "rebels" but actually in co-ordination with the Syrian government. I'm assuming even the non-reconciled rebels he is talking about (assuming this is true) will still be co-ordinating with the govt or with contacts close to the govt.
More likely these are tribes that went to the SAA side when the OP started
They are armed though, I think he's asking if they literally took over the town and got rid of the anti-govt rebels.
Unpopular opinion, but I will not call any country with the death penalty a civilised country.
I don't think your opinion is unpopular. I also agree the death penalty is bad, but at the same time I can't comment on Iraq because it is a very special circumstance, so I'm not sure here.
[removed]
They’re really trying to sell the children aspect
....Syrian war daily?
the people clearly see the writing on the wall...
now let's see how long it takes for the rebels to realize.
What do you mean? People in these areas have long been frustrated with the rebels in charge. They aren't protesting because they realized something, but I think the news of the advent of the Syrian army encouraged them to come out without fear of reprisal since rebels are busy preparing for battle.
Any confirmation?
RT Arabic said it too
